‘Cecil the lion’ offenders will be hunted down in SA

South Africa will not tolerate illegal game hunting, says minister after the killing of Zimbabwe’s most famous lion by an American dentist.

The “paws of the law” will deal with ruthless game hunters in South Africa.

This is the warning from Environmental Affairs Minister Ednah Molewa who says illegal game hunters will not escape justice in South Africa. She was responding to a member’s statement during a joint sitting in Parliament when IFP MP Narend Singh expressed his disgust at the ruthless hunting and slaughtering of a lion, known as Cecil, in Zimbabwe by American dentist Walter Palmer.

Singh said the manner in which Cecil the lion was hunted and killed in Zimbabwe was “barbaric” and a “disgrace” but Molewa said something similar in South Africa would have been dealt with in terms of Section 24 of our Constitution.

“There is a policy in South Africa, there is a law actually National Environment Management Biodiversity Act that is followed by the ‘tops’ regulations (Threatened and Protected Species) regulation number 26 … that actually prohibits any form of hunting that is cruel and we are on record saying no tranquilisation and a list of those things that are not to be done are listed in there. And nobody has to practice hunting in that manner.”

The Minister’s response comes after an outcry following media reports that the dentist, who is now reported to be facing poaching charges, shot the lion dead with a bow and arrow before posing with the dead beast while on a safari holiday.

Molewa said “the paws” of South African environmental law will deal with people like Palmer. “I want to indicate that South Africa has for a long time over many years developed a very good track record on conservation. We are among the best in the world. It is for that reason that today, we have around 3,000 lions in the wild and that those that are bred in captivity are around 6,000.”